The Environmental Protection Agency says there is no need to act on the fact that a toxic rocket fuel ingredient, which has been proven to lead to a loss of IQ and an increase in behavioral and perception problems, has long been present in drinking water across the U.S.

In a remarkable reversal of it’s position, the EPA, has ditched six years of effort into persuading the government that perchlorate contamination poses a serious risk to the public and should be regulated.

Perchlorate, has been found in at least 395 sites in 35 states at levels high enough to interfere with thyroid function and pose developmental health risks, particularly for babies and fetuses, reports AP. The toxic chemical has also been found in lettuce and other foods.

It is used by defense and aerospace contractors in conjunction with the Pentagon in rockets and missiles.

Blogger Rick Attig at the Oregonian succinctly explains why the EPA has suddenly decided to back down and drop it’s efforts to address perchlorate contamination:

It’s obvious what’s going on here. The administration wants nothing to do with a cleanup that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars or more. Nor does the Pentagon want to expose its friendly defense contractors to the costs of cleaning up the contamination they are responsible for leaving behind to seep into drinking water in at least 35 states and the District of Columbia.

Attig also points out that the Bush administration and the Pentagon are preparing to fix the science to justify not regulating perchlorate by setting the maximum contamination level at 15 times the figure the EPA suggested in 2002.Â

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A d v e r t i s e m e n t

The revelations first appeared in a Washington Post report Sunday, after the paper received a near final EPA “preliminary regulatory determination” document.

That document revealed that the government opted not to use a National Academy of Science formula for determining safe levels of perchlorate in drinking water, the model preferred by the nation’s top scientists, instead opting to use a computer model developed by the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology.

No conflict of interest there then.

The report also revealed that the White House deleted references to scientific studies which highlighted the link between perchlorate’s impact on thyroid function and an irreversible loss of IQ and perception in young people from babies to those in the 20s.

The document estimates that up to 16.6 million Americans are exposed to perchlorate at a level many scientists consider unsafe; independent researchers, using federal and state data, put the number at 20 million to 40 million.

Robert Zoeller, a University of Massachusetts professor who specializes in thyroid hormone and brain development, told reporters that the government amendments to the EPA proposal “have distorted the science to such an extent that they can justify not regulating” the toxic chemical.

“Infants and children will continue to be damaged, and that damage is significant.” Zoeller said.

Perchlorate is just one toxic horror readily found in the drinking water of people all over America. We have previously reported on studies that have found that numerous pharmaceutical drugs, from antidepressants like prozac to sex hormones, currently contaminate the water supplies of millions.

In addition millions more are being being mass-medicated against their will in many water districts by way of sodium fluoride, which is classed as a poison, being added to water supplies without their consent. The latest scientific reports have pointed to strong evidence of the waste chemical’s link to disorders affecting teeth, bones, the brain and the thyroid gland, as well as lowering IQ.

It is now clearly the responsibility of people everywhere to lobby representatives at the state and local levels to implement their own drinking water regulations in response to the combination of negligence, cronyism and downright criminal actions of the federal government on this matter.

Several states have already acted on their own. In 2007, California adopted a drinking water standard of 6 parts per billion for perchlorate, while Massachusetts has set a drinking water standard of 2 parts per billion. Meanwhile other towns and cities across the country have voted to remove fluoride from their water.

Given that states like Pennsylvania have passed laws making it illegal to remove fluoride from a community’s drinking water supply once such fluoridation is started, It is essential that action is taken on this matter before others follow suit.